Many attempts have been made to design satisfactory armored garments or so-called "bullet-proof" vests. In the past, many of these garments have been specifically designed for use by combat infantry and hence have concentrated on attempting to provide lightweight, flexible garments which would protect foot soldiers against both relatively large low energy missiles such as from fragmentation bombs, grenades and land mines, and smaller high energy projectiles such as from small arms. To provide adequate protection against such a variety of missiles, prior armored clothing for military use has often employed vests with a plurality of specially arranged pockets designed to receive rigid, usual metal, armor plates.
Certain examples of the prior art use a small number of relatively large armored plates to cover large sections of the body. Armored vests made with these large rigid plates are relatively bulky and heavy, tend to restrict mobility, and may fail to protect the body against transient deformation effects resulting when the armor is struck but not penetrated. An example of this type of armored vest is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,452,362.
Other attempts have been made to provide satisfactory armored garments using a number of smaller overlapping plates arranged inside specially designed pockets in a vest. In order to provide more mobility to the user, the pockets are suspended from the vest to allow the overlapping plates to move with respect to one another in more than one direction without leaving gaps through which a projectile could pass to hit the wearer's body. While these multi-plate armored garments provide some relief from the rigidity of prior vests, the method of attaching the plates to the vest is complicated and expensive. Also, these vests are usually bulky and therefore would not be satisfactory for concealed long-term use such as by a regular duty police officer. U.S. Pat. No. 2,747,190 discloses an armored vest of this type.
Because of recent advances in the design and manufacture of ballistic textile material, it has become possible to provide flak or fragmentation protection jackets which are relatively lightweight. However, in vests of this type, the body of the garment is relatively thick or stiff or both so that the wearer is considerably restricted in the movement of his arms, as for instance in the handling of a firearm or the like. A number of attempts have been made to provide flexibility to this type of garment by including flexible flaps and special closures. Examples of this type of armored clothing are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,743,446 which shows the use of flexible material at the front closure of the jacket, U.S. Pat. No. 2,808,588 which extends the flexibility to the back panels, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,954,563 disclosing a special feathered front closure. Most of these garments are designed for military use and provide adequate protection against low energy, relatively large fragmentation-type missiles. However, to provide satisfactory protection against small arms fire, a substantial amount of heavier material has been required. This additional heavy equipment constitutes a substantially impossible burden for the foot soldier, reducing his efficiency and possibly causing him to become a casualty as a result of fatigue or heat exhaustion.
The armor plated vests and even the soft body armor of the prior art provide satisfactory protection to the body. Their weight and bulk can be tolerated for short periods of time and in situations where attack may be imminent, for example, military combat, riot control or in emergency civilian police situations where an officer can expect to be attacked by known armed suspects.
Until now there has not been available a lightweight, flexible body armor that may be comfortably and unobtrusively worn under ordinary clothing or as part of an ordinary jacket for long periods of time by regular duty officers to protect them against sudden, unexpected handgun attack. Even on routine duty, the police officer may be a target of such unexpected attack by armed individuals. In such situations, the law enforcement officer would not have sufficient warning to protect himself with armor plated garments of the prior art, and because he is on duty for long periods of time, he could not comfortably or realistically wear such heavy and bulky garments as part of his regular uniform.